More Men Shift To Residential Market

COVER STORY

Women Dominate Home-sales Field, Which Has Attracted Them For Years

December 14, 1992|By Jack Snyder of The Sentinel Staff

As women make the leap from residential to commercial real estate, men are seeking opportunity in home sales.

The residential market has long drawn women because they often have a strong knowledge of those features that make a home livable, said Nan Wohlwender, co-owner of Daniel & Wohlwender Realty in Altamonte Springs.

''Part of the reason is, most women have an empathy with homes,'' she said.

In 1987, the most recent year for which data were available, 64 percent of salespeople in the National Association of Realtors were women, according to the Washington trade group. That compares with 37 percent in 1975.

In 1987, 58 percent of residential real estate brokerages were operated by women, the association said. In 1975, the figure was 17.6 percent.

But men are coming into the business in increasing numbers.

Bobbie Boehmer, president of ERA Preferred Properties in Orlando, has 36 sales agents - 22 men and 14 women - in her two offices.

Still, women remain at the top in performance, Boehmer said. Her top two sales agents this year are women, while a man ranks third.

Wohlwender said residential real estate is able to attract more women than men because it often represents a second income source for the household.

''There's a primary income to rely on while a beginner gets started and gets over the slow period with little or no commission coming in,'' she said.

''If a man is providing the primary income for a household, it's more difficult for him to go into a commission business like residential sales,'' Wohlwender said.

Daniel & Wohlwender has five men on a staff of 28, but Wohlwender said she has been receiving more inquires about residential sales from men, since the recession slowed the commercial industry.

The Greater Orlando Area Association of Realtors has 100 more men members than women, said Kevin Fritz, public relations director. But the trade group comprises both residential and commercial sales, which is still male dominated.